A $4 billion development turning parking lots and properties around the Honda Center and ARTIC transit station into a nearly 100-ace entertainment district with 1,500 new homes now has the Anaheim City Council’s approval.
With it, OCVibe can start construction – the goal is by the end of the year.
Anchored by the Honda Center, OCVibe is planned to include a 5,700-seat concert venue, a public park with an outdoor amphitheater, about a dozen new restaurants and a food hall, two hotels, offices and the 1,500 apartments, including 195 that would be designated for lower-income residents.
Anaheim Ducks owners and local philanthropists Henry and Susan Samueli are behind OCVibe; their management team now operates the city-owned Honda Center and the ARTIC station and will oversee the development of the new entertainment district.
“We look forward to starting construction soon on this important community asset that will showcase Anaheim and Orange County, while also providing world-class entertainment and offerings for local residents, visitors, and our Anaheim Ducks fans,” the couple said in a statement. The intent is to have the community built out by 2028 when the Honda Center hosts Olympics volleyball.
Up to $400 million in bonds will help pay for the development. The city’s financing authority would issue the bonds, which would be repaid by revenue from the Honda Center; city taxpayers would not be on the hook to cover any payments.
Anaheim and OCVibe officials are touting community benefits from the deal, including the affordable housing, two public parks that will be maintained by OCVibe, an on-site solar farm that would generate about 6 megawatts of power for the development, and an estimated revenue of more than $9 million annually in future years after the project is built out.
The project will be retooling the layout of streets and freeway access around the Honda Center, including a new road that is planned along the Santa Ana River as well as a direct ramp from the 57 freeway to the largest proposed parking garage. Parking in the roughly 8,000 on-site spots that will be created will be free.
Council members’ unanimous approval Tuesday night was a noticeable change in tone from the past few months, in which — under a cloud of alleged corruption — they voided a much larger deal to sell Angel Stadium and struggled to agree on several reform measures.
Before the vote, Mayor Pro Tem Trevor O’Neil said he was “proud to engage in this partnership with the proponents and really excited about the benefits that this project is going to bring to our city.”
Councilman Jose Moreno, who has been critical of the city’s usual close relationship with its biggest businesses, had questions about the project, but also praised the way the deal was forged.
“You’ve brought a lot of people together tonight that may not always agree, but that all are pretty united, it seems, because I’ve heard no one say that we shouldn’t support this,” he said. “I’m hopeful and thankful for this process.”
